Research and Standards Development

OHAC have been actively involved in national and international research and standards development since the company was set up back in 2007 and have a track record of developing client relationships and integrating into teams or organisations rather than imposing ‘Accessibility’ and ‘Design for All’ from the outside. OHAC are passionate about carrying out research and improving and developing accessibility standards both nationally and internationally relating to tourism, housing, transportation, the built environment, services, products and information, communication and technology.

Projects that OHAC have been involved in include:

The development of case studies as part of the European Commission's Study on Mapping Skills and Training Requirements for Accessible Tourism.

Project team member as part of M/420 Standardization mandate to CEN, CENELEC and ETSI in support of European accessibility requirements for public procurement in the built environment.

Participating as one of the trainers as part of the pilot of the ‘Stand4All Training’ - the application of CEN/CENELEC Guide 6 within CEN/CENELEC/ETSI Technical Committees.

Accessibility research and advice in the areas of public procurement; regulatory compliance; standardization; Universal Design; User Centered Design; accessible service delivery and stakeholder engagement.

Identifying the barriers faced by people with disabilities and assisting organisations implementing national and international standards and regulatory requirements in the accessibility domain (e.g. assisting public and private transport providers implement European Directives and regulations).

Participating on national and international standards committees to improve accessibility at national and international level (e.g. NSAI Accessibility Working Groups including ‘Universal Design for Customer engagement in Tourism services’; ISO/TC59/SC16 Accessibility and usability of the built environment and ISO/IEC JTAG - for the revision of ISO/IEC Guide 71.

For further information on the services we provide as researchers or in standards development, please do not hesitate to contact one of our team on 01-4151285 or e-mail [email protected]